Noise-some Notes – 28th July 2015

Welcome back to another edition of the Noise-some Notes, my weekly(ish) look at what’s been happening in my Metal World.

Not much has been happening news-wise. Paradise Lost have issued a cryptic image and date which fans will recognise as a detail from their Gothic album artwork and 2016 also marks the album’s 25th Anniversary… so maybe an anniversary reissue or performance lined up? And on the subject of anniversaries, Anthrax are lining up a deluxe 30th anniversary edition of Spreading the Disease. Their best album if you ask me. And there’s a box set (vinyl and CD editions) due out of The Faces studio albums. I’ve got my pre-order in for that already! I got rid of my Faces CDs quite a few years ago as remasters were being mooted but they didn’t happen for some reason. But now they’re here and I can’t wait! Can’t beat a bit of Rod.

And now, without further ado, let’s take a look at the highlights from my recent listening:

Macabre Omen – Gods of War – At War

This is my most recent purchase. Macabre Omen are a Greek Black Metal band and this is shaping up to be one of the best releases of the year so far. A lot of bands rely on all sorts of bells and whistles to give their music an “epic” scale but here it’s all in the writing and delivery. Much in the way of albums like Bathory’s Hammerheart and there is a strong Bathory flavour here too. I listened to this on the bus today and felt… stirrings.

Manowar – Gods of War

And speaking of stirrings… here’s Manowar! With more “Gods of War” no less! This is quite a brave album of theirs and one that has grown on me very much since its release. I mentioned bells and whistles earlier. Well, this is slathered in them. Orchestras, choirs, narration… you name it. But it’s all very dramatic and the right atmosphere and epic flavour is captured in the actual Metal too. Listen to the title-track and tell me that isn’t music to row longships to! Stirrings happened.

Uriah Heep – Demons and Wizards

This was a good Sunday night listen to accompany some slovenly couch-potatoing.

Def Leppard – Adrenalize

LeBrain has been doing excellent coverage of the Adrenalize-era Def Leppard singles and his reviews got me digging this album out for another listen. It’s not their best album by any means, but I have a big soft spot for this cheese-laden album. Especially the song Stand Up (Kick Love Into Motion), it’s a fantastic track that masterfully tickles me in the Pop parts. And I do love having my Pop parts tickled. It’s a bit like the stirrings but different.

Richard and Linda Thompson – Shoot Out the Lights

I did say last time that there are weekly spins of Richard Thompson music in the HMO compound and I wasn’t lying! And this is one of his (and Linda’s) best. I’m especially enjoying Man In Need these days.

Paradise Lost – The Plague Within

Got to hand it to Paradise Lost. It’s impressive stuff when a band of their vintage is still as creatively switched-on as this. Their latter-day releases have been generally very good (I especially like Faith Divides Us, Death Unites Us and In Requiem) but they’ve not sounded this vital for aeons. A very likely candidate for album of the year. And remind me to show you my sexy box-set of this some time.

Judas Priest – Live at Long Beach Arena

Was starting to feel like Priest were one of those bands that I’ve got fed up with. Like I’ve “solved” them. Well you can’t keep a band like Priest down and this excellent live album (the bonus feature of their recent Defenders of the Faith reissue) totally blew me away. It made me feel like I was hearing tracks like Metal Gods and Sinner for the first time. Sublime.

Cream – Those Were the Days (Disc 2)

The second disc of the Cream box set. I stuck this on mainly to hear Badge, my favourite Cream song (and a bass line I wanted to learn). But I always get a chuckle out of Pressed Rat and Warthog and its atonal apples.

These are the standouts anyway. In addition I listened to the usual Saxon albums that I cover elsewhere. There was some Thrash stuff like Testament’s The Legacy (yawn) and Dark Angel’s Darkness Descends (wooargh!) And I also listened to Opeth’s debut album Orchid for the first time in donkey’s! And rather enjoyed it too.

SONG OF THE WEEK

I was going to go for Def Leppard and Stand Up (Kick Love Into Motion) but I wasn’t quite sure if you were all ready to have your Pop parts tickled so… I went for the Metal Gods. A brilliant version of a classic tune.

55 thoughts on “Noise-some Notes – 28th July 2015”

Yay for Stand Up! Shame I didn’t own that single to add to the mix, but all the b-sides are on Heaven Is. I used to have the cassette single but I must have ditched it. (Thunder Bay landfill.) Like the other singles it had its own twist on the eyeball cover art.

I’m pondering a few options myself including posting every other day or taking a few weeks “off”. I’ve burned through my backlog and must keep writing new stuff. But I’ve also been trying to spend no more than 2 hours a day on the PC, so something is gonna give, sooner or later.

Mike, that’s all been backlog? Holy crap! You were sitting on the motherlode! Was it all Amazon stuff or from your writing otherwise?

I have absolutely zero backlog. I listen and write go go go! Since it only takes about 20 minutes to type up a post (I’d hesitate to call them reviews) off the top of my head, that’d leave an hour and 40 minutes to read other blogs!

I’ve flirted with lots of ways to make life easier on myself, since my urge os to do everything all at once! Like a puppy exploring a new room! I tried brevity more than once, haiku, even a hiatus! We all know how well that went.

I like the way HMO and J. approach this. Just talk about whatever’s been on the stereo that week, and slap up a post at the end of the week. For me, the biggest issue would be restraint.

Reworked backlog…Yeah I’d say 70%. A lot of reworking went into them all, but it’s a faster process for me to just rework something and I like the results I got. Many of my favourites were reviews from Amazon or journals that I extensively modified.

But yeah that’s all done. I found a couple reviews on Amazon that I reworked last week — look for a Scorpions and Deep Purple soon. That’s pretty much it.

I guess the key is to find what’s sustainable and, as HMO pointed out, still fun. I’ve toyed with a lot of ideas over time (remember the Thumb and Harlan), and on the KMA as well, over the years. Must be a way to combine all the good ideas into something doable.

Also, r.e. that Faces box: Is it the one called You Can Make Me Sin? ‘Cos here it’s just shy of $75 on pre-order, which at 4 CDs is $18.75 per disc! Bet I could get the albums on their own for less… Would the remasters really be worth it?

Yep, that’s the one. I’ve only paid £30 for it. That’s a straight-up bargain! There are bonus tracks galore and a bonus disc too I believe. Lots of stuff I’ve already got on the box set I have but it’s still a no-brainer for me.

Haha no, it was purely aural (careful with the spelling there…) stirrings!

And Badge is just awesome. Only heard the original version and a live one Clapton did later (on the Crossroads set I think?). It’s a great song. It’s one of those songs that’s totally sublime but too short! Every time it finishes I’m gutted.

Great stuff. If I didn’t already have them Faces albums I’d definitely be interested in picking up that set! Can’t beat The Rodster!

That Judas Priest reissue worth getting for that live set then, aye? Also, Shoot Out the Lights is one I’ve been meaning to pick up … and I’m gonna give High N Dry a spin this week at Mike’s suggestion.

The Shoot Out the Lights album has almost been one of those rare CD purchases a few times, so I might need to just go for it. High and Dry is one of the Def Leppard albums still among the digital collection.